Equity and justice, particularly raciolinguistic justice, continue to be at the forefront of my reflexive practice and my work as a practitioner-scholar-activist in postsecondary literacy and learning. Over the past several months I have been working to answer three questions:
What does raciolinguistically just postsecondary literacy look like on a practical level?
How do we make our ideologies on raciolinguistic justice actionable in the classroom?
How might we redesign instruction to prepare students for the current state of postsecondary literacy, while also working toward more equitable and just literacy ideologies and practices?
Through my own critical and reflexive practice, I have developed a framework that answers these questions and that provides a roadmap for enacting raciolinguistic justice in our classrooms. The framework for raciolinguistically just literacy instruction that follows allows instructors to break free from the current state of postsecondary literacy instruction where they are trapped by “the language of power” and the obligation to teach and hold students to its standards. This framework addresses the needs of both faculty and students and reimagines postsecondary literacy instruction to be equitable, just, and full of joy–making the goal of raciolinguistic justice accessible and actionable. Thus, freeing students and teachers to navigate diverse linguistic spaces with confidence and authenticity.
While I am pleased to be able to release a fully fleshed out framework, this is a work in progress. My goal is to work with postsecondary literacy and learning professionals to do classroom testing to further refine this framework. I am also working with a publisher to make available educational products and resources that support literacy and learning professionals in implementing this framework. Finally, I am putting together a series of training and professional development workshops, based on this framework, to be released in the coming months. I am so excited for this ongoing work and the role it will play in promoting equity and justice in postsecondary literacy and learning.
